Orissadiary.com, July 10, 2010
To
Dr. Manmohan Singh, honourable Prime Minister of India
cc
Smt. Partibha Patil, honourable President of India
Smt. Sonia Gandhi, honourable UPA chairperson
Mr. L. K. Advani, honourable leader of opposition
Mr. Kapil Sibal, honourable union minister of Human Resource Development
Mr. Naveen Patnaik, honourable Chief Minister of Orissa
Members of Parliament from Orissa
Dear Honorable Prime Minister Dr Singh,
Referring to the “Concept Note” published by MHRD for public debate and wider consultation [1,2] on proposed innovation universities:
(1) Innovation Universities focusing on cutting-edge research rather than teaching sounds rash. Primary goal of any University is education. Research institutions focus only on research. India has built many research institutions focusing solely on research in various disciplines rather than teaching since 1960s onwards. CSIR, DAE, & DBT Labs, JNCAR, TIFR, NCBS are good examples. Many educationalists privately admit that except few cases most of research institutions failed to live up to the expectations. Many such research labs have renamed themselves in past few years and are inclined to include teaching (master & doctorate) program along the line of research interest [3], which is welcome. Innovation universities focusing on research based education will be more appropriate to advance in the scientific and technological inventions in the world class level by fulfilling the long term national goal.
(2) Making innovation universities completely for specific areas such as for technological solutions of urban problems [4], energy [5], climate change, law [6] etc needs to be revaluated. Most of them are interrelated. Additionally why not to have an innovation university for technological solutions for rural problems and agriculture locating in a semi-urban rural area? Large part of the country depends on agriculture; most of the Indian population lives in rural area. Importantly food and biofuel demand could be a challenging national issue in coming years.
(3) National institutions for professional degrees have attracted good students due to better employment opportunities in the national level. Because of tough screening test in the national level, only good students could enter many of the national institutions for which these institutions irrespective of their locations could able to make an impact in the national/international level compared to any general University in India. IIT Kharagpur or Roorkiee still do well as par with IITs in metros. Similarly NIT Rourkela or Warangal performs much ahead of many other technical colleges (except IITs) in metros in the national ranking of technical colleges [7]. So location rarely played any role rather than it’s solely the quality of students the institution has taken through best possible way. Such institutions still could fulfil the aim of world class need if administrative changes are brought in the right direction. For legal education few of the existing National Law Universities across the nation could be reformed rather than establishing a completely new innovation university for the same.
(4) In true sense India has very selected comprehensive universities like BHU where all disciplines are taught and researched in one campus. There are suggestions for IITs and NITs in this direction [8]. Though current research interest needs multidisciplinary approach, many of human resource need still largely confined to traditional degrees. In this contest it is quite necessary to have all the discipline in one campus to give a wide selection of subject for students/faculties for multidimensional education and research.
(5) Most of the state universities failed to attract good students due to (a) non inclusion of professional courses such as engineering, medicine etc in their campuses and (b) establishment of professional institutions and college independently in the state and national level. University such as BHU, Pune University, Andhra University etc that included professional subjects in one campus or university such as Anna University, Jadabpur University, Coachin University of Science & Technology etc established exclusively for professional courses have done relatively well in the national level compared to universities primarily focusing on general degrees in science & arts. Funding is also other main constrain to excel in research for most of the state universities. A central university (like in Hyderabad) or IIT gets substantial amount of funds for research & education compared to any state University (which gets like peanuts). Recently MHRD has realized this issue and preparing to address the problem through different grant schemes for state universities [9]. Definitely it is appreciable. But if the state Universities and other institutions may get enough fund and could be prepared themselves to bring administrative reform, then they would excel in education and research in the world class level.
(6) Many world class institutions such as Penstate University, Cornell University, University of Michigan, Illinois University at Urbana-Champaign, University of Gottingen, Heidelberg University, etc are made in small rural towns. Most of them are university based towns serving the interest of innovation and creativity in research and education in the world class level. Why can’t India make few innovation universities in this line? When MIT or Harvard University was established in Boston it was a small town like Bhawanipatna in Orissa, now it is an educational hub and industrially developed city in USA (despite having a population, about 700,000, much smaller than many major cities in USA). In Indian case when NIT (formerly REC) Rourkela was established, Rourkela used to be a very small rural area, population much less than that of then Bhawanipatna town in Orissa. Today due to SAIL and NIT, Rourkela is much ahead of Bhawanipatna in terms of education, industry, growth and is the second most populous urban area in Orissa. If visualized properly tomorrow place like Bhawanipatna, dist head quarter of Kalahandi, which already has train connections to many major cities in India, National Highways and an airport (Raipur) within 200 km (location resembling to Penstate University or University of Gottingen), could emerge as Boston of India. Similarly many such locations could be found in other states of India having rail and NH connectivity and an airport in few hours of 200-250 km.
(7) An excellent research and teaching institutions always bring industrial development and encourages a knowledge based city/environment in the periphery. Good examples are Boston, San Francisco, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai etc. However, unlike Boston, San Farncisco etc environmental and infrastructure stress being generated for major fast growing cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack, Pune, Kolkata, Bhopal, Guwahati, Delhi, Chennai, Gandhinagar-Ahemadabad, etc in India are equally alarming and challenging. When multiple existing institutions, both state & central, in these locations could deliver fully in terms of quality if steps are taken, then why India needs to create many similar institutions in the same locality or city? Like 2nd campus proposal of IISc [10], innovation universities could rather be pillar for many least deserved regions without having similar facilities as mentioned above to bring development in those localities across the nation. For overall and inclusive growth, India needs at least 100 small towns distributing geographically across the nation to bring social balance and reduce rural mass migration.
Indeed this is in the line of knowledge commission recommendation to have more number of universities across India. India has 626 districts and substantial number of public funded central institutions. A public funded either central/innovation University or institution like IIT/NIT/IIIT/AIIMS/IISER/NISER/NIPER/ Medical College/etc. in each district of India in long run could be easily achieved.
Concept of innovation universities should broaden the idea in the national level simultaneously bringing world class into the local level in interior land. It should also focus to make world class for already established institution in metro/cities.
Thanking you
Best regards
Digambara Patra
1. Innovation Universities: As on May 21, 2010 (Published in MHRD website)
http://www.education.nic.in/dmu/DMU-14.pdf
2. Concept Note of Innovation Universities Aiming at World Class Standard, Published in MHRD website, dated May 21, 2010
http://www.education.nic.in/uhe/Universitiesconceptnote.pdf
3. Indian Express, June 18, 2010
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/cabinet-clears-way-for-varsities-in-tribal-areas-to-hike-st-quota/635402/0
4. The Hindu, December 16, 2009
http://beta.thehindu.com/education/article65947.ece
5. Economic Times, June 3, 2010
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/services/education/US-institutions-to-partner-for-proposed-innovation-varsities/articleshow/6008075.cms
6. Hindustan Times, July 2, 2010
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Sibal-moots-innovation-varsity-in-PPP-mode-for-legal-research/Article1-566257.aspx
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_college_rankings_in_India
8. The New Indian Express, May 18, 2010
http://expressbuzz.com/cities/bangalore/iits-to-soon-venture-into-other-domains/174348.html
9. Times of India, Patna, May 17, 2010
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Patna/DST-to-sanction-handsome-grants-to-science-depts/articleshow/5938674.cms
10. Sify.com (Business Standard, May 3, 2010)
http://sify.com/finance/iisc-s-second-campus-to-come-up-in-karnataka-news-default-kfdba0aicjd.html
Digambara Patra, Ph.D
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry
American University of Beirut
Beirut, Lebanon
Email: digpatra@yahoo.com
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